Terror stop and search powers are unlawful, rules Europe

Worries: the European Court of Human Rights said the powers were too wide

Anti-terrorist powers which allow police to stop and search people without grounds for suspicion were today declared unlawful by European judges.

The European Court of Human Rights said the powers were too wide and that safeguards against abuse were inadequate.

It said that as a result they were in breach of Article 8 of European Convention on Human Rights — which guarantees citizens the right to a private life — in a decision which could force ministers to re-write the legislation.

Today's ruling, which follows claims that the Met has been abusing the powers by wrongly searching tourists, photographers and protesters who pose no threat, came in a test case brought by two Londoners.

They were stopped and searched under Section 44 of the Terrorism Act of 2000 as they tried to attend a demonstration against arms fair at the Excel Centre in 2003.

One of the pair, 32-year-old Kevin Gillan, was detained by police for about 20 minutes as he was cycling to join the demonstration, while the other, journalist Pennie Quinton, 39, claimed to have been held for 30 minutes, although Met records show a figure of five minutes.

The European judges backed the pair's arguments and ruled that the stop and search powers were "not sufficiently circumscribed". The Home Office declined to offer an immediate response, but campaign group Liberty, which backed the pair's case, said the law should now be overhauled.

Corinna Ferguson, the group's legal officer, said: "Liberty has consistently warned the Government about the dangers of stop and search without suspicion. In the coming weeks, parliamentarians must sort out this mess."

Shadow home secretary Chris Grayling also called for reform, saying that anti-terror laws "should not be used as a way of conducting normal day-to-day policing". More than 150,000 such searches had been conducted in the capital since the failed Haymarket bombing of October 2007 with a sharp rise in the number of black and Asian people stopped. In response, the Met announced it is to restrict the use of the powers to "hotspots" such as tourist spots and shopping centres.